4 Ways to Scale Your Content Marketing

When it comes to scaling your content marketing, it’s easy to fall into overwhelm mode. Let’s face it, crafting expert-level blogs and articles, writing video marketing content, producing videos and Tweets, and promoting webinars takes time.

According to recent data collected by Kapost, only 32% of marketers report they are creating enough quality content.

No surprise that the remaining 68% feel their content marketing could use a tune-up. With so many moving parts that need to connect together for a greater purpose (see this post for content marketing strategy tips), it can be difficult to get it all done according to plan.

If content marketing has you banging your head against the wall, not to worry—our copywriting team has a few tricks to help you scale your content marketing without melting into a puddle of stress-induced overwhelm.

Before we jump into the strategies, it’s important to take a look at why content marketing is so important. To be blunt, content marketing helps businesses become million (and sometimes billion) dollar companies. Here are a handful of examples:

• General Electric now creates television series and long-form content to leverage brand strategies.

• Chipotle produced a mini-series on the Hulu platform that showcased on a fictional farmer’s quest to get natural foods in restaurants.

• Marriott is now equipped with in-house content studios.

 

These examples—while giant corporate entities with marketing and media departments—reveal how major, multimillion-dollar companies understand the power of content marketing.

In fact, some industry titans base their entire services off of content—the shining example of that being TED. With inspiring and startling content segments ranging from human brain studies to personal growth speeches, TED’s content has been watched 1 billion times.

As outlined in this article from the Content Marketing Institute, TED’s content attracts 17 new page visits each second and has locked in 3.5 million subscribers on their YouTube channel.

The reason for these astounding numbers is summed up in TED’s tagline: ideas worth spreading.

While you may know that, you might think one thing right now…

“How am I supposed to compete with these industry giants as a small business?”  

If you’re about to give up on the expansion of your content marketing efforts, please don’t. I say this as a professional copywriter and small business owner, and I want you to make the following statement your mantra…

You can compete, despite how the big boys produce and distribute content.

And you don’t have to invest all your time, put a dent in your budget, or pull your hair out in frustration.

Here are 3 ways you can scale your content marketing without dying from a stress meltdown.

#1 Realize you have information worth sharing.  

The first step to creating scalable content is emotional. When you create content, you do so because you have valuable insight, strategies, and ideas that would serve people in a profound way.

TED became such a powerhouse inasmuch as the company realized people like you exist—people who have knowledge that others need. Once you understand that your expertise is valuable, then you’ve set the framework for creating scalable content that leverages your expertise and grows your business.

#2 Strategy is the foundation.

Form your big picture strategy prior to embarking on your content marketing project. In doing so, you have an end to meet. As our team fleshes out marketing strategies, we find that strategies involve pieces of a puzzle, but not the completed image.

As you build a strategy around a desired result, all the moving parts start working, and you don’t concern yourself with minute details.

For example: one of our clients had a goal to add 20,000 new subscribers by the end of 2015. Come late April, she gained over 17,000 new subscribers. With her end goal taking center stage, all the other pieces fell into place (including almost a million dollars in sales.)

When she visualized her goal, it became less of a conception and more of a project that could be built out piece by piece. She knew that content would be the centerpiece of creating her goal of 20,000 new subscribers, so she determined her marketing needed to…

• Provide entertainment, so she strategized off-the-wall marketing emails.

• Pique curiosity, so she implemented subject lines that involved puppy dogs and flamenco dancers.

• Give real educational value, so she used landing pages to highlight the takeaways people would receive.

• Spread buzz beyond the confines of her existing marketing list, so she developed an affiliate program.

Therein lies the nuts and bolts of her strategy, all of which culminated with the end goal. The bottom line is this: when you strategize from a big picture point of view, you start with the results and then figure out how to build that goal.

#3 Expand existing content.

Content is like an interstate, and the different venues are the cars. People have their preferences, but they all want a destination.

When you expand your existing content through multiple platforms, you reach wider audiences who have preferences for how they receive information.

Yes, that last part is a bit of a head-scratcher, so I’ll explain. Think about how people learn—sometimes it’s through reading and sometimes it’s through listening. Your audience operates the same way.

Some people really like newsletters.

Others spend hours poking through small business blogs.

Quite a few people watch marketing videos into the wee hours of the morning.

More and more people subscribe to podcasts every day.

Here’s what you can do to (easily) expand your content: take an existing piece of content. Let’s say it’s a blog.

If that blog has 5 strategies, you have fodder to create 5 marketing emails that you can use either to cultivate a deeper relationship or encourage prospects to attend your next webinar.

If that blog is short, you have the framework to expand it into an in-depth case study or white paper that you can use to generate leads.

If that blog provides how-to advice, consider turning it into a video that shows the audience how to accomplish something.

Content is not a one-and-done deal. Content can be delivered in multiple ways.

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